Soundless Imaginings | One-Shots

How to Forget an Ex | KibAri

Ari's POV

"The Haters of Suki Tsukino Club."

"The what?" He gave me a funny look, head tilted to the side in an adorable way. Akamaru, standing beside him, mirrored the look. It took a lot for me not to start cracking up like a drunk guy crashing a party.

"Haters of Suki, for short," I said, pushing off the wall I'd been leaning against, my arms raised for dramatic effect. "It's a club me and Vi formed a few weeks ago. It's just us, and we discuss how much we hate Suki."

"Did you do this cause of me?"

"Pfft no." I dropped my hands onto my hips and leaned closer to him, our noses almost brushing. "I did it cause she pissed me off by hitting on my sister's crush. You don't mess with my family, Dog Boy, or you won't live to regret it."

It took a minute, but a slow, lazy grin slid across his face. "Good thing I'm on your good side then, huh?" he asked, his grin widening as he realized just how close we were. To answer him, I flicked his forehead and spun away, chuckling a little manically to myself. Akamaru yipped happily and trotted along at my side, giving me a cute closed-eye smile.

Well, his eyes were always closed, but that was beside the point.

"That's what you think, Inuzuka!" I called without looking back. I linked my hands behind my head, my sloppy grin still bright and vibrant. "You gotta earn your way onto my good side! Otherwise I'm just gonna make fun of you."

"What the..." I heard him mumble. He probably blinked a few times in confusion, then he was running after me, shouting at Akamaru and sounding pissed. Ha! Take that! The little puppy liked me better than his best friend!

....Actually, I felt kinda bad about that....

Not that I'd tell Kiba, though.

I scooped Akamaru into my arms and took off, moving as fast as my skinny legs would carry me. Aunt and Uncle always said I didn't have enough meat on my bones, but eh, whatcha gonna do about it?

A fit of laughter escaped me as I ran, Kiba chasing me, Akamaru barking, his tongue lolling from his mouth in pure ecstasy. He was like one of those big dogs who stuck their heads out the window of a car and looked like they were having the time of their lives. I never understood why, but for some reason I was seriously happy that I was moving fast enough for Akamaru to enjoy something like that.

Laughing like some crazy lunatic (definitely not how I normally laughed....), I turned a corner and continued down the street, dodging around poor non-Ninja citizens who had absolutely no freaking clue what was going on. Kiba was still on my tail, but it sounded like he was gaining. Not good. What to do...?

My eyes widened and my grin turned wicked; I knew just how to smack some sense into Kiba.

I poured on the speed, becoming a blur in the eyes of anyone else watching me, and raced down the street, sure-footed cause I finally knew where I was going for once in my life. The familiar hanging signs came into view and I smirked: finally!

Alright....

3....

2....

1....

NOW!

The second before I was going to smash into the walls of Heaven on Earth (AKA Ichiraku Ramen) I jumped into the air, gathered a shit load of chakra into my feet and pushed off the side of the stand. The burst of chakra from my feet sent my tumbling through the air, right over a very startled Inuzuka's head.

"Sorry, not sorry!" I laughed.

He smacked face-first into the wall, causing a really nasty thud to sound through the air. I landed on my feet, knees bent, unable to wipe the smile from my face. Kiba groaned from where he lay on in the dirt, spread-eagle style. A red mark was insanely visible on his forehead; I winced in sympathy.

"Didn't take you for a sadist, Sandy," he mumbled.

I chuckled awkwardly and knelt beside him; Akamaru, still in my arms, squirmed to be closer to Kiba and licked his nose out of concern. He blinked open his eyes and smiled, that warm, sweet smile he only ever showed Akamaru. It made my heart do jumping jacks.

"All I did was knock that bitchy skank outta your head," I said indignantly, huffing like I had a reason to be offended. Really, all I was doing was trying to hide just how funny this boy made me feel inside. He messed with my head, too, and that was not a good thing. I didn't have enough brain cells remaining to have this boy go screwing them up.

His lazy smile widened as his puppy leapt from my hold into his arms. He sat up and hugged Akamaru tighter to his chest, then cocked his head to the side to look at me. "Thanks, Sandy."

I just grinned sheepishly. "No problem. I told you. Hates of Suki Tsukino Club. It's a real thing. Check us out."

I helped Kiba up, brushed the dirt of his jacket, then led him around to the front of Ichiraku. I offered to buy us lunch to apologize for nearly ruining that smexy face of his (Scar had given me some spendin' money cause she didn't want to deal with me for a few hours) and was just about to duck inside when he pulled me back by my arm.

"Huh?" I looked back over my shoulder and felt my face flush as crimson as Gaara's hair. Ugh. Damn. That smile. So irresistibly cute and charming and smexy. How did Kiba not have girls chasing after him all the time? It made no sense! He was obviously the hottest character in this whole goddamn universe!

"You know, Ari," he said, taking the step that brought his face close to mine, "you didn't have to do all that just to help me forget about Suki."

"I didn't?" My voice came out as a squeak, and I mentally cursed myself out and beat myself with a hammer. Mind you, this was all in my head, but I winced all the same. Kiba, probably already used to my insanity, didn't say anything about it.

"Nope. You didn't have to do anything." His eyes hooded thoughtfully as his smile brightened. "Cause whenever I'm with you, Suki's the last thing on my mind."

I may or may not have moaned in (disturbing) delight when he bent down and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss that set my heart doing laps with Lee around Konoha.

Ok. Screw it. I was in love.

Kiba smirked as he pulled back, chuckling when I stumbled from suddenly not having his support any more. He caught me around the waist; Akamaru had since scurried up on top of his head. The little squirt peered down at me, tail wagging to say he was just as happy and excited as I was.

"So thanks," Kiba said again.

"Yeah. Sure. No problem. My pleasure. Wow. Oh damn, wow. That was... I'm just..." I was flustered. I couldn't finish a single damn sentence! Dammit! Scar was gonna kill me if I got any more insane because of my obsession for Kiba. But that kiss...

I already welcomed the insanity, what was a little more gonna do to me?

Bad question. Really awful, actually. But I chose not to think about it as Kiba finally led me under the hanging signs of Ichiraku and sat next to me at the counter.

Teuchi, the old ramen guy, was grinning from ear to ear, whistling a tune that said he'd been listening in to our activities but didn't wanna show it.

I didn't mind; and from the glance I stole at Kiba, he didn't either.

***

"So, was that your first kiss?"

I nearly choked on my ramen. Incidentally, it came out my nose like a fire hydrant and completely drenched the counter.

I expected Kiba to laugh, but he only smiled and said, "I'll take that as a yes. And that's good. It was mine, too."

I smiled my messy smile.

God, I loved this Dog Boy.